Tag Archives: corruption

I am mortified when I see the values of the highest paid and most watched football players and managers. It’s a disgrace. Watching the most recent Euro 2012 tournament which winds up tonight, I have been reminded about the way professional football is just not good for society.

Professional Sports a Source of Inspiration

At a professional level, sports are entertainment, an industry vying for attention and consumer dollars. Sports provide an outlet for unbridled testosterone. They buffer empty spaces and minds with conversation topics. They fill the minds of the youth with dreams. And, more importantly, provide role models to inspire us mere mortals and amateurs.

Professional Football a Source of Deep Frustration

It is for this last reason that I tolerate little professional football (aka soccer), especially since it is the single most popular sport in the world and, certainly, the most mediatized. On the positive side, you have to admire how national football matches can galvanize a nation and help override internal tensions (maybe the USA would do better to play in more shared international team sports as opposed to the insular American Football and Baseball which are extremely inward looking, albeit with some Canadian teams here and there). And national tournaments have a way of crystallizing the state of a nation, as witnessed by the display of ego-laden individualism in the French team in Euro 2012.

My Top ten list

Herewith, meanwhile, are the top ten things (from least to most) that irritate me in professional football:

When the ball goes out, both sides immediately shoot up their arm to claim the ball, even when the call is perfectly obvious.

No one ever throwsin the ball where it went out. It seems that there is a lax acceptance of 5 extra meters.

When a free kick or a throw-in is awarded, the penalized team often holds on to the ball or throws it away disparagingly.

When a free kick is given, the defenders are never 10 yards away and, right after the referee measures out the 10 yards, they mechanically creep up toward the ball.

People and managers still pay attention to the formations (4-4-2 or 4-1-3-2…) whereas such stated formations have no resemblance to what actually happens on the pitch. Formations are a charade.

There is no way to go take a break midway through a half without a risk of missing THE single goal of the match. Ok, I’ll admit this is not going to be a big deal once I have TIVO installed.

Any time physical contact is made or might be made, far too often the player will dive onto the ground and claim a free kick, with the hand going up even as they fall, and with the look of horror on the face that would make a B class actor proud.

The pain and writhing of a player that has been or claims to have been tripped lasts as long as the referee is potentially thought to be looking in his direction.

Mario Balotelli – doing his job alone

Despite being the most lucrative sport in the world, there is still no goal line camera technology.

And the winner is: When a goal scorer scores, his first reaction is to take off his shirt (if only it were to hide his name) and run from his team mates to self-promote. Never mind that he only accomplished that for which he is paid. Your job is to score. I say, well done for doing your job. Punto. Mario Balotelli’s display, so symptomatic, in the Euro semi-final match against Germany is not what team sports are made of.

Between the lack of goal-line camera, only one referee on the pitch and no TV review, there is a gaping opportunity for corruption and manipulated results in professional football. As has been covered recently in English professional football, there is widespread gambling and corruption (run by the Chinese it seems) even down in the lower divisions. Corruption is rampant around the world in a game that attracts too much money, and too many low levels.

My take: Professional football should concern itself more with its image, values and sportsmanship. What do you think? Does it deserve to be the most watched sport in the world?

POST SCRIPTUM 6 JULY 2012:

I just read that the English Premiership is looking at implementing goal line technology for the 2012-2013 season. A revolution is at hand? See the BBC report.